Pipolotti Risti:Risti is a video artist from Switzerland. She generally deals with issues related to gender, sexuality, and the human body in her work. She often alters her films in color, speed and sound, and they normally only last for a few minutes. Something I found refreshing was that unlike many other conceptual artists, her work gives the feeling of happiness and simplicity. Feminist art critics often review her work. She became famous worldwide for her film Pickelporno which was about the female body and the sexual exitation. She's also done films called I'm Not The Girl Who Misses Much, Ever is Over All, and Open My Glade. (The picture above is from Sip My Ocean).
Bill Viola:
According to Viola's own website he is "considered a pioneer in the medium of video art and is internationally recognized as one of today's leading artists". He creates videotapes, architectural video installations, sound environments, electronic music performances, flat panel video pieces, and works for television broadcasts. Viola "uses video to explore the phenomena of sense perception as an avenue to self-knowledge". There are common themes in his work such as universal human experiences like birth, death, and the unfolding of consciousness. He also works with spiritual themes including Zen Buddhism, Islamic Sufism, and Christian mysticism. Apparently his video communicate to a wide audience. (The picture above is a still from Angels Departing and shows one of his most common themes, water.)
Matthew Barney:
Matthew Barney:
Barney calls himself a sculptor, but he works with a variety of different things including film, video, drawing, sculpture, photography, and performance art. His best known work is a film series called the Cremaster Cycle. It's an experimental film with a relatively high budget and featured Norman Mailer, Ursula Andress, and Richard Serra. He also did a film in 2006 with Bjork called Drawing Restraint 9. His work has been throughly critically reviewed. Jed Pearl feels his work is "phony-baloney mythopoetic movies, accomponied by dumpster loads of junk from some godforsaken gymnasium of the imagination". Wow... anyway, I was scared as I was watching the trailers of his movies. I've never seen anything that weird in my entire life.
